Yasmine Chanel talks style, influencing and Bloggers Unveiled
When we get on the phone to blogger Yasmine Chanel, she's en route to visit relatives in Tunisia, the country with which she shares her Irish heritage.
The former makeup artist (who has maintained her skills, as her Instagram proves) had just began her journey to the Northwest African country from Dublin, Ireland, where was was busy attending the launch of Nasty Gal's new Autumn/Winter collection.
Laughing into the phone about her jet set lifestyle ('it's not as glamorous as you think it is,' she assures me), the wanderluster is refreshingly honest with her descriptions of her work, the blogging industry and internet culture, in an industry that often comes with an unshakeable facade of perfection.
While Yasmine's styling skills and penchant for influencing are undeniable, she isn't afraid to speak candidly and let her personality and opinions shine just as much as her incredible highlight.
For those of us (aka all of us) who want a slice of her style guidance, she is adamant that this season, all you need is one particular item to keep you Insta-worthy.
'I really love anything that Nasty Gal comes out with, it's really like my style, everything is cool and edgy which I think is really different because when it comes to fashion you want to always look cool as well as stylish,' she said.
'I think for upcoming trends the key piece is a really cool coat, for example Nasty Gal has a really cool trench, it's a leather trench coat with a faux fur collar, and those kind of coats look amazing even dressed own, I like to wear mine with some trainers and skinny jeans.'
While she hails from the Emerald Isle, as her Irish vocal lilt reveals, Yasmine makes London her home, but was impressed during her time in Dublin with the style standards.
'I'm always in London, but when I came back this year I was really impressed,' she said.
'There are some amazing people in who know how to dress and really have their own style.'
Speaking of style, Yasmine goes on to detail her love of personal style, but she doesn't have too many people she follows for inspiration – she prefers to act as her own muse.
'I more go for someone's style of photography, because I feel like I have my own style so I don't really save a certain person for inspiration, but I love Terrie McEvoy, and she is so lovely as well. I love when you meet people in the industry and they're so genuine and down to earth. Her style is more feminine to mine but I really do like how she puts things together.'
Yasmine began her blog back in 2014, when blogging was taking off in a big way, but we definitely didn't have as many successful online personalities as we do now.
She admits that while the community has gotten bigger, which is positive, it has led to an added level of competitivity – something she makes a specific effort to eradicate through her blatantly friendliness.
'Sometimes when I go to events it has that little bit of cold energy, but not all the time because there are some amazing girls, but the odd time, I think that people just don't really know whether they should look at you as their rival or something which is silly, so you go up and make the first move just to make it clear that you don't think like that, then they open up.'
'Four years ago when I first started getting into it people were a bit more open and friendly, and then as the years go on people have their own little groups, everyone kind of pairs off, but Ive always been one to be friends with every type of person myself, so sometimes you'll go to an event and people wont interact with you so I'll always go up and hug everyone because i want to make sure that its not going to feel awkward.'
Speaking of her blog, Yasmine has some key advice for wannabe influencers, many to whom Yasmine, with a jaw dropping 363 thousand Instagram followers, successful blog and highly engaged brand work, must be an inspiration.
'When I started doing this I didn't even know what or how influencers could make money, I didn't even know it could be a job. I love so many aspects of it, I love photography, I love exploring where I am so that inspires me to take photos, I love fashion, I've always loved fashion even when I had no money. To be inspired by doing this job, you have to really love every aspect.'
The key though – 'being consistent, you really have to be consistent.'
'Most importantly, you have to be yourself, because if you're not taking photos of what you love, or putting outfits together that you love then you're just copying someone else and that's the first step, a lot of bloggers kind of copy each other or they try to recreate things and I don't think you should do that because people will see that its not genuine.'
While Yasmine can make a living from her influencing now, her level of professionalism in the industry was a long time coming, and when she began, she certainly wasn't taking herself too seriously.
While her outfits are absolutely killer, and her undeniably charming personality surely sealed the deal for many who look to her for inspiration, Yasmine started her digital taste making voyage for sheer kicks.
'I think that you need to not look at it too seriously when you're starting out, just keep it as your hobby and as something you enjoy doing while doing whatever else, and if you start to get noticed and start to get brands naturally and organically trying to approach you, then you can take it a bit more seriously.'
'That's what I did, I was just working in London as a makeup artist and I only did that part time and I was doing this too, and I didn't know I could get paid for this so I was just posting things, really enjoying interacting with people and I was getting interaction from other women who loved my style so it motivated me to post more, and then I started to get brands interested and then I was like wow, I can make money from this, so I started to do it more seriously and it grew from there,' she expressed.
'So when people want to get in to it, they shouldn't look into it as a job, you have to enjoy doing it first, and being natural, being yourself, getting your own personality across. Theres nothing worse when you see someone, they haven't even grown any following but they're kind of getting angry that they're not getting noticed, but it takes so much time to get noticed. You have to be patient with it,' she finished.
When we look to our favourite influencers, women like Yasmine who are placed on an online pedestal, it can be easy to assume that they live charmed, perfectly lit lives through which their work just occurs with ease.
However, that's not the case, with influencing being a demanding job, Yasmine highlights – 'Taking photos is not that easy because you have people who are really small minded who see you taking pictures and they think you just love yourself or they don't realise that you're doing this for your job – or you'll have annoying men try to hit on you when you're trying to take photos.'
'Also, sometimes you just don't want to be online but you have to as you have to post things for brands, so that's also difficult when you also just want to hibernate from the internet, but with this job you cant, you always have to be on the 'gram.'
While we're on the topic of the challenges of being a blogger, through anecdotes the conversation turns, as it so often has done in Ireland over the past few months, to Bloggers Unveiled.
Yasmine, having based herself in the UK, went unscathed by the virtual claws of the page, and hadn't even heard of the anti-influencer's impact on the industry here.
Once filled in, Yasmine's disgust and outpouring of support for the Irish blogging community was tangible: 'That sounds really petty. It annoys me because it's like why do people care so much? I wouldn't look at myself and say that im a shallow person because Instagram is just one aspect of who you are as a person, and I try and show my personality on my Instagram story. I don't understand why people hate so much.'
Showing her feminist credentials, she went on: 'People should actually be celebrating that success for people who are really creative, because those people are finding ways to make a living.'
'I feel that this is what I'm meant to do right now because I could never stay at a normal job, and I really respect people who can, but even before influencing I just couldn't do it. I always felt that I had to do something more creative and I think that's why I love doing it, and I think people should respect that.'
'There's two types of people in the influencing industry, people who are creative and people who copy, and I think that's the difference.' Hear, hear Yasmine.
